Company Secrets
by Sirmanartha
Summary: A who dun it with a corporate twist.


Title: Company secret.

Max tensed as footsteps echoed outside his cubicle. It was late, and the company had no security. He was sure of that. But someone was coming.

The sound of an object rapped in beats of four.

Rap…Rap…Rap…Rap…

A flashlight beamed across the desk lined across the wall of each cubicle. Max shut off his monitor, glowing too brightly in the darkness. He had been in the process of downloading files, which Max had hoped would uncover the secrets hidden from the company.

There had been a number of disappearances of his co-workers in the last four months, Max intended to find out exactly what had happened to them. Sarah had been the last one; she had worked with Max for the last few years. It had only been a week since the last time he had seen her. Max knew the answers could be found somewhere inside these walls. Call it a hunch, but in his mind he had already put a face to the culprit in the back of his mind.

It was the name of someone working here that he believed was the responsible party. All he needed was proof to tie the connections.

Max recalled the last time he had talked with Sara. It was Late on a Friday when he had been closing up to go home for the day. Sara had urged him into one of the closed offices near by. Sara had been nervous, and he could almost feel that she was about to tell him something. Her b brown eyes kept darting furtively around the room, as if she were expecting someone to come rushing in. Sara's shaky hands ran through her hair, exposing chewed fingernails. Her voice was strained from panic. "I have something to tell you." She said between gasps. "You may not believe me, but I will explain everything." She gulped. Panting the way a scared animal must sound when cornered, Max thought.

"He has a crush on me… At first I thought it was harmless, you know a simple office crush…Then I started seeing him everywhere." "Around the office to begin with…Later it was at the store, or places I would frequent…Lately I have seen him sitting outside my apartment in a van."

"I know I am jumping at shadows, but he seems to be around every corner."

"Who is it?" Max asked, gently touching Sara's shoulder. Sara jumped violently recoiling from Max's gesture, as if a wild electrical current had slammed into her body.

"He is like an evil Genie!!" Sara replied backing away."When you say his name ….he appears!" She ran out the door, Max followed as she stormed out of the office, and to her car in the parking lot. Calling her name Max could not get Sara's attention as she jumped into her car. She rolled down the window, and said. "Max….You need to get out of here!" Without waiting for a reply Sara sped off into the night, as Max stood there, staring at the car lights dwindling away in the distance. The following Monday arrived and Sara hadn't returned. At first Max had believed that she had quit. He still didn't know who Sara had been talking about, but his curiosity wouldn't leave it alone. Sara was not the first person to leave recently. Max feared she would not be the last. Max knew it was a man, who drove a van. He began to observe his co-workers. The ones who kept to themselves, and ate lunch alone. No one was hanging around for any unnecessary lengths of time. There was a lot of talk about differing attitudes from other departments. Employees who were disgruntled, complaints about not getting raises, from too much work to bosses who threatened employees to work harder. Max had his job to do too.

After a few days Max noticed a new employee, sitting by herself, picking at her lunch, her head hung down , as if she were intently studying her half eaten weight loss entrée. There was a janitor, who wore a name tag. Jorge it read. He was cleaning the table next to her. Max approached, looking for a table to eat his lunch. The janitor was busy trying to start a conversation with the lady, as he stared at her while cleaning the table. She sat there with her head down, acting as if unaware of his presence not responding to his talk. Both looked up in surprise as Max approached to ask if he could sit down. Gratitude shone in the lady's eyes, as anger and jealousy poured out of the janitor's.

"Yes! Please sit down!" She pleaded, moving a chair between her and the janitor. Jorge to save face said he had an office to clean, ended his conversation, and rushed off. The lady introduced herself as Sheila, a new marketing intern from the university downtown.

"Was Jorge bothering you?" Max inquired thinking of Jorge's grisly face, all scarred and pockmarked. His lazy eye cast a muddy brown stare, as if he was casually staring at you. Jorge was solidly built, making him even more intimidating. Jorge was covered in tattoos, from his neck to his arms. His greasy black hair pulled back in a ponytail. Max would not want to see him in a dark alley, that's for certain. He could empathize with Sheila.

"He's been shadowing me since I started two weeks ago." She confessed.


End file.
